_(c) Playing with Gaming-Machines._—Notwithstanding that roulette is an illegal lottery, it is an unhappy fact that of late years it has been much more played than formerly. An inspection of tradesmen’s catalogues, and a glance round the departments at the stores, tends to confirm the impression that it and like games are becoming much more common. A member of the Bar who many years ago took the silk gown, and who was known to be averse to gambling, although going a good deal into society, has noticed how often the green cloth appears not long after dinner, sometimes after a postponement until he and those of like mind are about to leave. Its public use may have been put down, but in private houses and in clubs the roulette-table has multiplied its numbers. Here again, in connection with gaming-machines, corruption has spread and gone lower down. The automatic machines, at first used for the sale of sweetmeats, have been altered so as to be made the vehicles of gambling amongst the poorer classes, and especially children. They have already done irretrievable harm. Investigating the subject in the East End of London, the writer of these lines was told by a responsible person that they had taken such a hold upon the young that, while in classes of poor boys comparatively little difficulty was found in obtaining pledges not to drink and smoke, much reluctance has been evinced with regard to promises to give up petty gambling. Upon one occasion a bright boy flatly declined to add such a pledge to others, saying that he could not give up the excitement of using his coppers in this way. Most of the police prosecutions have been successful, and fines have been imposed under sec. 44 of the Police Act; while the machines were without hesitation pronounced to be illegal upon licensed premises. It may be hoped that the latest decision in _Fielding_ v. _Turner_ in the Divisional Court will go far towards stopping their use for gambling, now that they can be confiscated. So serious a matter had they become that the Home Secretary has promised to strengthen the law if need be. But the eagerness with which the temptation they offer has been responded to by the poorest of children should be a warning to the authorities against the old looseness of interpretation in the matter of laws against gambling. For children, at least, the old nonsense about skill and chance should be entirely swept away, and severe penalties enforced against all those who tempt the young in this manner. If not, the growing generation will be worse in gambling than the present one, and instead of a nation with a large minority devoted to the vice, it will develop into a general habit in which the majority are involved in one form or another.